Sunday, 17 June 2007

Redword, Ex-Wives, Pappygold - 13th Note

Stumbled into the 'Note around 10pm, after having Bob moan at me for hours in Coopers on the other side of town. "I was there, I know it was okay".So here, on stage, the band are really loud...

"If yer writing a review, I want in it," says Clair, somewhat threateningly. Sure, here's her myspace profile, website and Livejournal, I hope she reciprocates with links to this site. Seconds later I'm being jumped on by one of the Drive Carefully Records promotery people, muttering something about me writing a bad review.

Ah, fuck this shit.

Adam Plimp has his fingers in his ears as he tries to sell copies of Kharki Shorts, its the final issue of the legendary Glasgow underground comic. And he appears to be drawing the gig. What us this? Some new fashion? All the cool kids doing it now, writing reviews not good enough? Well, I hope some of the pictures end up online, bigger audience and all that.

So, the band, I'm not sure who they are, but they're pretty good. Overwealmingly loud; guitar, bass, drums and barked vocals, a neat tapestry of sounds mixes from the hard rock/metal pallet. Bass player with fluffy angel wings. A poor man's answer to the mighty Dananananaykroyd?

Kind of jarring compared with what Drive Carefully usually have on, whoever booked them seems to be showing contempt for the regulars. It could have been some crazy attempt to keep the punters on their toes, or get a new crowd in. Looks like the band brought a load of their friends along, so its paid off.

Its a kind of deep grinding music, with some bounce to it. Some of the lyrics sounds like Adam's ad libs, "My girlfriend left me for a horse..."

Ooh, free CDs.

Apparently they were the Ex-Wives, but I didn't recognise any of them (pun).

Gill and Stoo play some MP3s, I go for a wander. And vaguely get introduced to someone off of the internet in real life!! For a few brief seconds it was like "Hey!!" "Hey!!" and it was kind of cool, we read each other's blogs from time to time. But alas, thats about as far as it needs to go.

Next on stage is some laptop gentleman, laptop and keyboard, possibly called Pappygold, and for the first songs possibly playing MP3s and a game of Solitair, or judging by the mousepad action, it could be FreeCell.

For the third song, a microphone is involved, could be glitch-pop, fast drums and cathedral sounds.Ceylan say "Yeah, I like it," hmm, double enthusiasm there. She adds "He's interesting and far more enjoyable than the rest" a similar opinion to Adam and Steff, who earlier thought that the first act were better than the second. I almost wish I hadn't missed the first act, Redword, prog laptop stuff apparently. But alas, if I hadn't been in Coopers I'd have been at the Laurison.

So, this girl just tried to get in on the guestlist. I'd taken a seat at the door, next to the money tin and Ceylan with the stamp. She came in, looked awkward and smiled with these dimpley cheeks and stripey top under a baggy glittery jumper, cute nose and smiled again. Ceylan stared back. I think the stand off lasted about twelve minutes of unblinking before the interloper broke off and asked promoter Billy to let her in.

Right, next gig on the Last Night From Glasgow Indie Eyespy callendar is The Parsonage playing in Kelvingrove Park at 3pm today.I love the Parsonage, never seen them play live though, they're a thirty strong choir who do covers of contemporary hits by artists such as Johnny Cash and Funboy Three, and by a startling coincidence, I went to school with one of them, worked with another of them, happen to be sitting next to another and wrote a review of yet another only two days ago. I had you hooked with the promise Johnny Cash covers.